Wizards’ World War: Dispatch 16- First Day of School

Little Madeline bobbed her head to the music coming from her earphones. Mom had put her favorite DVD on the minivan’s DVD player. Little hands on her new school uniform navy blue blouse. She brimmed with excitement. New kids to meet, new teachers, new stories, new everything. She would tell them about her new puppy, Pepe, and her summer trip to Disney World.

She sang along a bit out of tune to the happy song in her tiny ears. Her mother smiled in the rear view mirror, smacking her lips to fix her lipstick. The traffic inched forward, horns blaring. From the corner of her eye, Madeline spotted a large silver white bird descending on them. She flew in one of them with her family to and from Florida to visit Mickey and loved every minute of it. She wasn’t scared as the winged behemoth came down upon them, she seen them before come close overhead only to land on the airport across the road. Close it came, sunlight glittered of its wings.

At the last moment, smoke appeared under the wings, but little Madeline could not know, did not know what it meant. The nose pitched downward, straight at her, getting bigger and bigger by the second.

“Mami, mira el avion!” said Madeline with glee.

“Si mi amor,” her mother turned her head to the left, toward the bay. She screamed and reached back for her daughter. Madeline screamed in surprise as her world turned to fire and twisted metal.

Flight 109 from New York to San Juan crashed a scant third of a mile from runway 10 of the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport. All 300 hundred passengers plus another 37 commuters died in the crash, including little Madeline Alexandra Rivera-Rivera, age 5, on her way to her first day of kindergarten.